Taking Down Backpage: Fighting the World's Largest Sex Trafficker

Written by Maggy Krell

Narrated by Sara Sheckells

For almost a decade, Backpage.com was the world's largest sex trafficking operation. Seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, in 800 cities throughout the world, Backpage ran thousands of listings advertising the sale of vulnerable young people for sex. Reaping a cut off every transaction, the owners of the website raked in millions of dollars. But many of the people in the advertisements were children, as young as twelve, and forced into the commercial sex trade through fear, violence and coercion.

In Taking Down Backpage, veteran California prosecutor Maggy Krell tells the story of how she and her team prevailed against this sex trafficking monolith. Beginning with her early career as a young DA, she shares the evolution of the anti-human trafficking movement. Through a fascinating combination of memoir and legal insight, Krell reveals how she and her team started with the prosecution of street pimps and ultimately ended with the takedown of the largest purveyor of human trafficking in the world. She shares powerful stories of interviews with victims, sting operations, court cases, and the personal struggles that were necessary to bring Backpage executives to justice. Finally, Krell examines the state of sex trafficking after Backpage and the crucial work that still remains.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jan 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781666178142

Reviews for Taking Down Backpage

[Mara Lyons · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Taking Down Backpage is a fascinating inside look of the work of Maggy Krell, a young California District Attorney, who aimed to stop sex trafficking in her area. It is a brief, but powerful memoir accounting the work she did to take down Backpage.com. I appreciated that they went after to those profiting from trafficking and not prosecuting the victims. I found it especially compelling to read about creative ways in which legal and law enforcement was able to gather information to charge companies for profiting from illegal activities. It’s maddening to learn how our current laws relating to the internet are inadequate and haven’t kept up with the myriad ways the internet and websites are used for criminal and unethical behavior. Krell also illustrates the role of vast privilege and wealth in regards to the justice system and evading prosecution. Taking Down Backpage is a compelling look behind the scenes of law enforcement and the legal system.

[Susan Leipsner · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was a book that was well written and well read. I wish the author would have left her politics out of it…a lot of praise for Kamala Harris, a dig of Epstein being President Trump’s friend, but no mention of him also being Obama’s friend and a friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Her political bias got in the way of her story of how she helped take down Backpage. .. a huge win for humanity. Just a shame she didn’t keep her political bias out of it.